March 06, 2013

As we have covered numerous times on this website, in 2009, the State of Massachusetts enacted the Massachusetts Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Manufacturer Code of Conduct (PCOC).

After going into effect on July 1, 2009, the PCOC requires the reporting of payments of more than $50 made to any health care practitioner by industry. Payments for 2009 were then published on the states website in late November, 2010. The legislation is very similar to the Physician Payment Sunshine Act.

For a better understanding of Massachusetts’s law and basic definitions of terms, click here.

More recently, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health approved final amendments to the PCOC in November of last year. The amendments, among other things, allow companies to provide “modest meals” for healthcare providers for product education (non-CME) outside of the office or hospital setting. You can find the current version of the law here.

Consequently, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health recently posted its transparency data—manufacturer payment data to physicians and hospitals—for 2011. You can download the full 2011 data here. Between 2010 and 2011 payments decreased approximately 3%, from about $64.4 million to $62.4 million. The number of transactions between manufacturers and physicians, hospitals, and entities also decreased almost 10% (from 42,497 to just over 38,500). There were also a number of other significant changes:

Payments for CME, third-party conferences or meetings increased 16% (over $1.2 million less) . This category includes payments to covered recipients for accredited CME activities and for sponsoring a covered recipient’s scientific or professional conference/meeting, where the sponsorship is promotional (e.g., booths/exhibits).

Payments for grants/educational gifts also increased, 2%. This category includes fellowships, scholarships grants for local events, and provision of anatomical models or other such practice-related items. In addition “other” types of payments increased 60%, a little over $1.4 million.

Given the immense expense that went into collecting this data, it is hard to imagine that less than $62 million was spent on compliance, which means that it was more expensive to collect the data than the actual dollars spent.

States considering expanding transparency to NP’s and PA’s, should consider that in Massachusetts they amounted to less than 1.5% of all payments. With state resources strapped for cash there are significantly better ways to control spending than to force companies to spend more on needless additional transparency.